Realisation
by derpfacedarren
Summary: Remus and Sirius have always been friends. Close, close friends. But what price are they willing to pay to become more?
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

The Great Hall was practically empty, which wasn't unusual for the first week of term at Hogwarts, apart from sixth and seventh years that had free periods. A few groups of students sat scattered around the room; each group sitting apart from the rest on a different one of the four long tables that lay in the over-sized and frequently-used hall. At the hall entrance, a group of Ravenclaw girls sat giggling and gossiping over possible boyfriends. Further down the hall, on another table, were three Slytherin students, two boys and one girl, who were attempting to turn a rather unlucky ferret into a snake. Across the room on the Hufflepuff table was a girl trying to do an advanced summoning spell. In the far corner of the room, furthest away from the entrance and sitting at the Gryffindor table, was a group of three sixth year boys.

The first boy, who was fair-haired and sleek-looking, had his head in the book in front of him. The book seemed to have his full attention as he poured through the pages, his face engrossed in its contents. The second boy had dark hair which flopped from his scalp and ended just past his ears. He was on top of the table, his hands either side of him, as he lounged back onto them in a sitting position. His feet were on the bench he was supposed to be sitting on, next to his book-loving friend, and he wore a smirk on his face as his eyes scanned the room. The last boy had scruffy dark hair and wore round glasses. Yet despite having the facial appearance of a well mannered student, giving him the potential to be the teacher's pet and golden boy, he sat next to his friend backwards on his bench. One elbow was propped on the table behind him, allowing him to lounge back in a relaxed position. In his opposite hand he was flicking a snitch, which he'd stolen from his Quidditch match last year, into the air and catching it on its return.

The boy on top of the table, named Sirius Black, scanned the room for what seemed like the millionth time and then turned to his snitch-catching friend.

'Prongs, have you realised how little people are in here?' He questioned, scanning the room once more.

James Potter looked up at him; smiling at the fact his friend had used his nickname. He too then looked around the room. James had spent all six weeks of the holidays with his family in their small house in the country. The first four weeks had been long and hopeless, but Sirius stayed at his for the last two weeks. The term 'came to stay' was a loose description of the events. Sirius ran away from his Slytherin family as he couldn't stand them. All they were to him were a collection of the people he detested the most; so he left. James' family took him in with open arms when he turned up with his Hogwarts' trunk and owl on their front door step. It was the highlight of James' holiday.

After finishing his scan of the room, James looked back to Sirius.

'I've realised, Padfoot.' He agreed, skillfully throwing the snitch into the air again. Meanwhile, Sirius turned to their other friend, whose nose was still firmly in his book and jabbed him in the arm. Instantly he looked up.

'Moony, why the hell are we in here?' Sirius asked. He only received a sarcastic look in return with raised eyebrows. Sirius smirked and nudged his friend again.

'Remus!'

Remus Lupin returned the smirk. 'There are a few reasons' he said, the sarcastic look remaining on his face.

Sirius' smirk grew bigger as he raised his eyebrows. 'And they are…' he prompted.

'Well' Remus put a piece of scrappy paper in his book and shut it. 'The first is that it's quiet and I can therefore read without interruptions.'

Sirius exchanged a look with James that meant 'not if we can help it'. Remus noticed this but ignored it.

'Yes, but if it's quiet and deserted then James and I have to be quiet and cause very little trouble.'

'When was the last time you two stayed quiet and caused no trouble?' Remus exclaimed. Sirius and James chuckled lightly.

'You have a point.' James grinned.

'So…' Sirius prompted. 'Next reason'

Remus smiled, looking at James. 'Lily Evans normally comes here for the majority of her free periods. Seeings though she's in the majority of our classes, I figured she'd be here.'

Immediately James sat up. At the end of the previous year he had become closer to Lily. He stopped being a prat to her all the time, deflated his head a little bit and tried being a gentleman in an attempt to let her see he wasn't just a jerk who hexed people for the fun of it. It worked. Lily promised to stay in touch with him over the holidays by owl.

'Thought that might interest you' Remus rolled his eyes.

Sirius grinned at James. 'I take it you two stayed in touch over the holidays then? Have you been sending each other love notes?' Sirius batted his eyelashes mockingly and Remus laughed at the red tint in James' cheeks.

'Let's just say her owl no longer bites me.' James said and they all laughed. The three boys knew that Lily's owl, however much Lily protested, was a vicious beast that would peck the living daylights out of anyone it delivered a letter too. For the owl to be no longer leaving marks over James' hands meant that he and Lily had quite literally kept in touch over the holidays.

'So, we've discovered yours and Prongs' reasons for being in this room of dull inhabitance; but what's mine?' Sirius turned back to Remus.

Remus propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. 'Because otherwise, you'd have no one to hang around with and would probably end up getting into trouble. When Dumbledore gave me this prefect badge he hoped I'd use it to keep you two from ending up in detention every other day' said Remus, gesturing to the red shield badge on his Hogwarts robes with a 'P' in it's centre.

'Every other day?' Sirius scoffed. 'You underestimate us, Moony. Everyday, more like.'

Sirius turned to high five James, who slapped the hand of his partner in crime whilst they shared the same devilish grin. Remus rolled his eyes. He went to tell his friends that they have standards too high, when he spotted a figure walking in the door way.

'Lily Evans just walked in' he whispered. James swirled round instantly and smiled and waved. Lily caught his eye and waved back before heading over to the table.

'You embarrass me, I kick your ass.' James whispered to them under his breath.

Sirius pretended to look hurt as he threw his arm round Remus' shoulder.

'Us? How dare you?' Sirius winked at Remus who couldn't help but smile at the fact Sirius would definitely attempt to turn James' face scarlet. Also, James' version of 'kick your ass' would involve the pair of them spending the next few weeks trying to sneak puking pastilles and potions with varying intentions of revenge into the other's food.

Lily approached the three boys smiling. She had long, thick and dark red hair, which fell past her shoulders, and pale skin which seemed almost shining. Upon her robes she wore a red prefect badge, identical to Remus'. She was the other sixth year prefect for Gryffindor.

Although Remus could see James' attraction to her, he most admired Lily's brains. He and Lily had been good friends since first year as they were both highly talented in class and willingly bright. Although Lily always despised James and Sirius' behaviour, she made many attempts to try and influence them into good manner. It would work on the rare occasion but mainly she would only talk to Remus. However, now Sirius and James seemed to have grown-up, even though they had landed themselves a detention in the three days they had been back, Lily had taken more of a liking to them. The last few days of the previous year had involved the four of them messing around by the lake and experimenting with different spells and charms. Between Lily and Remus, they had managed to drill the Summoning Charm into Sirius' head whilst James acted as a test-dummy, holding the item Sirius tried to summon.

The main reason, however, Lily and Remus had remained friends, was because whilst Sirius and James played pranks, Lily discovered something out about Remus that the three boys tried hard to keep hidden.

Remus Lupin was a werewolf. In his early years at Hogwarts, he was bitten by the werewolf, Fenrir Greyback. This resulted in Remus having a transformation, once a month at full moon, where he would turn into a reckless and fearsome monster. By Dumbledore's request, Remus would be escorted down to the shrieking shack by Madam Pomfrey every month where he would be locked in and complete his transformation. It was very soon after the bite had happened that Sirius and James found out. Using James' invisibility cloak, the two of them followed Remus and discovered his secret. Since then, they decided to help Remus. They didn't feel it was fair for him to be locked up every month. So in the space of two years, they turned themselves into animagi through a long process of somewhat disencouraging pain. From then on, they'd turn into their animagi forms every month and escort Remus the werewolf around the forbidden forest.

Sirius' animagi was a large black dog and James' was a stag. Along with their werewolf friend, they created the Marauders. Remus, Sirius and James; also known as Moony, Padfoot and Prongs.

Lily Evans' discovery of Remus' true condition did not involve sneaking around under a cloak or large animagi. Instead, she used her brain and wit whilst studying werewolves in Defence Against the Dark Arts to make the connection between the werewolf description and Remus' monthly illnesses and disappearances. She confronted Remus about this in the third year.

'I know who you really are.' Lily whispered.

Remus stopped abruptly, checking the Gryffindor common room was empty. He and Lily had stayed up completing Transfiguration homework.

'What?' Remus could only say.

'I know who you really are.' Lily repeated. Remus threw her a confused face.

'Oh come on, Remus. You have the right symptoms and I'm not the brightest witch in our year for nothing.'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' Remus said stubbornly.

'Werewolves are stubborn too. It's their fearless attitude that does it…' Lily began.

'Keep your voice down!' Remus exclaimed, looking worriedly around the room again; checking for lurking Gryffindors.

'So you admit it?' Lily grinned at Remus; knowing she'd won.

Remus returned the smile, defeated.

'I admit it.' He had whispered.

Remus was glad Lily knew and didn't judge him. Lily wasn't a very judging person. Maybe that's why she liked James; despite his twat behaviour.

As she stood in front of him smiling, James shoved Sirius feet aside so Lily could sit between him and Remus on the bench. She sat correctly at the table, like Remus, causing James to swivel round and do the same. Sirius, who was amused by James' behaviour, jumped off the top of the table and sat opposite the three of them at the narrow table.

'Evans!' Sirius exclaimed, causing Lily to roll her eyes at his foolishness.

'How was your summer?' Remus smiled at her.

Lily's face fell into a grimace. 'It was the same as ever. I went home to muggle life and a whole summer deprived of magic. Well, not completely.' She shot a look at James, who smiled at her knowingly, and blushed.

'Christ, you'd think they have been doing more than just sending owls to each other for six weeks…' Sirius muttered under his breath so that only Remus could hear; who struggled to stifle a laugh.

'How about you?' Lily asked Remus.

Remus thought through his summer. Besides homework and sending letters to Sirius, James and Lily, his holiday had been cruddy.

'It was the definition of dull with limited magic as my parents don't apparate around the house and spend a lot of time away.' Remus concluded.

'Your parents were out of the house and you call it dull? Sirius interjected. 'That would be heaven.'

Remus stifled a grin at James and Lily. They knew all about Sirius' dramatic escape. James had sent and owl to Lily and Remus who spent the last two weeks sending owls to each other about it.

'Well, my parents aren't too bad.' James shrugged.

'Your parents are the coolest!' Sirius exclaimed. 'I arrive out of the blue and not only do they let me stay, but they promise me I can return whenever I like. Plus they feed me! Count yourself lucky, Prongs.'

James sighed. 'I suppose so. That's only because they know all about your family problems.'

'Suppose so?' Sirius quizzed. 'Je deteste my family. That's more than just a 'family problem'.'

James smiled at Sirius' language choice and pocketed his snitch.

'Have you seen your brother yet?' Remus asked. Sirius' brother, Regulus, was in the year below. He was part of the family Sirius hated so dearly and was a Slytherin, like the rest of his family. Sirius was the only Gryffindor out of the Blacks. Sirius had always been proud of this and on the one occasion that Remus and James had visited his house on a rescue mission, they saw Sirius' walls were plastered with scarves of red and gold; the Gryffindor colours.

'Fortunately, not yet. The little fleabag will probably try to hex me at some point, however. I will not be responsible for my actions.' Sirius grunted.

Lily sighed. She may be able to have a good effect on James; but Sirius was hopeless.

'What about Snape?' Lily asked. Remus saw a pain in her eyes that James and Sirius didn't notice. Severus Snape, a dark-haired Slytherin, had always been a close friend of hers until the beginning of last year. James and Sirius was using the Levicorpus Curse on him when Lily came along and tried to help. They let Snape down but, caught in the moment, he called her a 'filthy mudblood'. Lily hasn't spoken to him since. Being called a mudblood was not to be taken lightly by muggle-borns or their friends.

'The friendless git was in our Dark Arts lesson. He was at the back but I couldn't speak to tell you or the professor would have murdered me. I'm not getting a detention just for Snape.' Sirius shrugged.

Lily stayed quiet, willing for a subject change. James noticed this as well as Remus this time and moved on.

'So how many lessons have we got with the Slytherins?' he asked.

'It's NEWT year, remember? It's all mixed.' Remus stated.

'Thank the lord. What did you guys take again?' Sirius asked.

'Erm… Potions, Astronomy, Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms and History of Magic.' Lily said, grinning.

'You took six?' Sirius said. 'Bloody hell!

Lily looked smug. 'I wanted to take more but I couldn't fit it in. What about you?'

'I took Three; Dark Arts, Transfiguration and Charms.' Sirius shrugged. 'Prongs?'

'Five. I took the same as you and then Astronomy and Potions.'

'Potions? Why even bother?' Sirius grimaced.

'I 'exceeded expectations'.' James put on a stupid voice, making Lily giggle and Remus roll his eyes again.

'You've turned into R emus on me. You'll be in the Slug Club soon.' Sirius mocked.

'Oi!' Remus attempted to whack Sirius with his book, but he dived expertly out of the way.

'There's nothing wrong with Slug Club, you know.' Lily sighed. 'Slughorn isn't that bad.'

'The same could be argued for Slytherin but I wouldn't spend an hour every other week with them if I could help it.' Sirius grinned.

Remus and James couldn't help but laugh at Sirius' quick thinking. Even Lily smiled.

'What did you take, Moony?' James asked.

'Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and Arithmancy.' Remus replied.

'Ah yes, we forgot you fancy yourself as an auror.' Sirius smiled. 'I'm sure you could be Minister of Magic if you wanted. You're too smart for your own good.' He threw Remus a smile.

Remus shared the smile with him for a moment before looking away. 'I'll take that as a compliment.' He gathered his books and looked at his watch. 'Right, it's time for Charms.'

Sirius and James groaned. Charms was possibly the dullest lesson imaginable to them.

'If it were up to me, we'd have Dark Arts and free lessons all day, everyday.' Sirius groaned to James and Remus.

'Padfoot, your Slytherin side is showing.' James grinned, menacingly.

'True Black family member, you are.' Remus continued, awaiting a reaction.

Sirius nudged the two of them hard in the stomach with his elbow before walking in front of them and calling without looking back.

'Come along, buttheads.'

Remus and James shared an accomplished look before James slipped his arm round Lily as they walked along. Remus caught up with Sirius so he wouldn't ruin the moment and they headed off to Charms.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

'Why did I take Charms?' Sirius flopped onto one of the many sofas in the Gryffindor common room next to Remus who had arrived a few seconds previous. The room was slowly filling up with the Gryffindor house. Many people went straight up to their dorms; but a handful of people, including James, Sirius, Remus and Lily, stayed downstairs in the red and gold room.

'Erm, because it's one of the three things you passed in.' Lily said, raising her eyebrows.

'Liar, I passed Divination too.' Sirius protested.

'Mate, everyone passed Divination. The teacher's a lunatic.' James said, amused.

Sirius sighed. 'At least we have Dark Arts tomorrow.'

Remus smiled. Defence Against the Dark Arts was the three Marauders' favourite subject. Remus had obtained the highest level possible, an O for Outstanding. James has achieved an E for Exceeding Expectations. But it was Sirius who was surprisingly the best. He achieved a high O; beating Remus by a small margin. For someone who hated learning, Sirius seemed to live for practical Dark Arts lessons. Therefore Remus let Sirius have his glory whilst trying hard to be just as good.

'I'm off to my dorm' Lily said, looking at the three boys. 'I only have one free lesson tomorrow and could do with some rest.'

'Haven't you got Transfiguration homework?' Remus asked.

'Done it' Lily's smug smile made no effort to hide itself.

'We only got it today!' James' mouth fell open into shock.

'I didn't spend the first half of our free lesson doing bugger all, you know.' Lily seemed to take it as an insult but shrugged it off.

'Anyway… goodnight.'

Lily made off to her dorm, slowly. James looked at Sirius and Remus before smirking. 'Give me a minute.'

He followed Lily, stopping her just before the stairs to the girls' dorms. Then, whilst Remus and Sirius watched with impressed expressions, James tucked a loose strand of Lily's red hair behind her ear and kissed her cheek softly.

'Night, James' Lily whispered after a slow moment; then she disappeared. James returned to the sofa and was greeted by an extremely loud wolf whistle by Sirius. He patted James on the back who plonked down in between him and Remus.

'I think I'm in.' James' face had a victorious look upon it.

'Yeah, maybe' Sirius' voice was oozing with sarcasm. James only laughed as he savoured the moment.

Remus woke up earlier than usual the next morning. He still had a good two hours 'til he actually had to consider getting up. He didn't have a very good night of sleep at all. It was a week until full-moon. The week leading up to his transformation was always the worse. He felt sicker and weaker than usual and became tired easier. He also became restless easily. This is why he lay debating for over 10 minutes whether to get up and go for a walk around the castle. James wouldn't mind him borrowing his cloak as long as nothing happened to it. He would be back by the time James awoke anyway. No one would know.

Of course, Remus needn't have bothered to think this. He suddenly felt a rather cold hand on his bare shoulder which made him shiver.

'Moony?' a voice whispered.

Remus looked up automatically to see Sirius towering over him.

'What?' Remus mumbled.

'I've been an extremely close friend of yours long enough to know that it's a week 'til full-moon, meaning that you wake up ridiculously early and probably feel like shit. Am I correct?' Sirius whispered animatedly.

Remus didn't have to answer. Sirius was correct about everything he just said and he knew it. Instead he just groaned out; 'I hate Lycanthropy' which caused Sirius to muffle a chuckle.

'So get up, we're going somewhere.' Sirius continued on from his previous sentence.

Remus sat up. 'Where?'

'The same place I know you want to go. Outside.'

Despite himself, Remus smiled. Sirius really did know him too well. He pulled himself out of bed and started to chuck on his robes over his underwear. Sirius, who had dressed quicker than he, had moved over to James' bed. There were only the three of them their dorm. They used to have two others but Dumbledore had them moved after Remus' change.

'Is James coming?' Remus asked, watching Sirius pull out James' invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map. The map was an invention of their own that they used to sneak around the castle. Being mischievous, they needed a way to know where people were. The Marauders map shows where everyone is in Hogwarts and any move they may take. It was necessary for times like this when they ventured out of the castle whilst they should be elsewhere.

'Nope' Sirius looked down at James. 'He doesn't like to be woken up and it's not like there won't be another opportunity to do this. He can come next month if he wants.' Sirius grinned.

'Yeah, or tomorrow! I'll be like this 'til Saturday.' Remus sighed.

'Full moon's on a Saturday this month? That sucks. You could have got out of Potions.' Sirius smirked.

'I like Potions-' he would have continued to argue with Sirius, but James stirred in his sleep.

'Let's go.' Sirius almost hissed.

The two boys headed towards the portrait exit. The Fat Lady that guarded the Gryffindor common room swung open for them as they chucked the cloak over themselves. They stepped out.

'Where are we going?' Remus whispered. He could make out Sirius' figure under the dark cloak and could feel his breath next to him.

'_Lumos_' Sirius whispered.

The cloak lit up and Sirius pushed his wand to the empty parchment which was to become the map.

'Do the honours, Moony.' Sirius whispered. Remus whipped his wand from his robe pocket and raised it to the parchment.

'I solemnly swear I am up to no good.'

Immediately, the map revealed its contents.

'_Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers, are proud to present… THE MARAUDERS MAP._'

Sirius sighed. 'We really need to get round to removing Wormtail from this title. The cruel bastard deserved to be expelled after what he did. James was never left alone by him.'

Remus bit his lip. 'I thought he would have known using Unforgivable Curses is banned at Hogwarts. I know he wasn't the brightest spark but-'

'Wasn't the brightest spark? Stop giving him unnecessary credit, Moony. He deserved to go.' Sirius seemed frustrated to Remus. Then again, if Wormtail had tried to use an Unforgivable Curse on him he would have been pissed too; even if it did hit a different inanimate target.

'I don't know why he thought it was necessary anyway. Even if I did get sent to St Mungo's after being tortured into madness, James would never speak to him again.' Sirius sighed. 'He should have gone to Azkaban.'

'Well, Dumbledore thought it best he didn't.' Remus shrugged. 'Now where are we going?'

They peered down at the map. The area was clear apart from their own figures, as was the surrounding corridors, so they made their way downstairs. After a short while they reached the exit to the outside grounds.

'Fancy a swim?' Sirius said, glancing over at the lake. Remus hesitated for a few moments and, as if to show his opinion, shivered. It wasn't the warmest of days.

'Oh, man up, Moony.' Sirius nudged him lightly in the stomach and began leading him to the lake. Once reaching the lake and disappearing behind a tree, which hid them from view, the boys whipped off the cloak.

As Remus tucked it into his back pocket, Sirius held his wand to the map.

'Mischief managed' he smiled satisfyingly. The map instantly dissolved its contents, leaving the parchment blank. Remus then took this too and tucked it safely into his robe.

'So, are you coming in?' Sirius gave an expecting look to Remus before looking to the lake. Remus only frowned.

'Suit yourself.' Sirius shrugged. He effortlessly stepped out of his robe and chucked it down onto the dry ground. Remus watched in disbelief as he stripped to only his underwear and, giving him one last wink, dived into the lake. As if it was Sirius' intention, the edge of the splash reached Remus causing him to step back a few paces.

Whilst watching Sirius prance around in the water, enjoying his early morning swim, Remus sat cross-legged on the ground next to Sirius' clothes and pulled out his wand. A malicious grin appeared on his face.

'Oi, Padfoot!' he called out. Sirius' head appeared above the water. Remus picked up his trousers and waved them in the air. He pointed his want at the waistband. 'Do you know the reverse spell for if I shrink your trousers?' he smirked.

'You wouldn't…' Sirius said uneasily.

'Is that a dare?' Remus raised his eyebrows.

Sirius debated it for a few moments. Remus may be smart-ass boy-wonder, but that wasn't to say he wasn't just as mischievous as his friends.

'No, no it wasn't.' Sirius realised he would go through with it and, being arrogant to pointless spells, he did not know how he would return the trousers to normal. Saying that, he had a feeling Remus would not make him walk back to castle with no trousers on whether he was under the cloak or not.

Sirius swam to the lake edge and put his hands on the bank. Effortlessly he lifted himself out of the water and shook himself like a dog.

'You're not a massive, black dog at the moment, Pads; you don't have to behave like one.' Remus said.

Sirius smiled. 'Sorry, habit. Now give me my clothes.'

Remus handed him his clothes. He held onto the trousers longer than normal and saw the satisfying look of panic in Sirius face. It caused him to chuckle whilst receiving a glare from his dripping friend. Remus flicked his wand a used a non-verbal charm to dry Sirius. Instantly, his hair became long and slick once again whilst his underwear looked as though they had never even seen the lake.

'You need to teach me that.' Sirius said in awe.

'Of course' Remus nodded. 'But first, put some damn clothes on.'

After hurriedly getting dressed, the boys chucked the cloak over them and revealed the map's secrets. The broke into a controlled run through the empty corridors, back to their common room. In no time, they reached the Fat Lady and whipped the cloak from them.

'Mischief managed' Remus muttered as Sirius gave the Fat Lady the password.

'Causing trouble again are we?' the Fat Lady opinionated.

'Keep your nose out' Sirius snapped as they entered through the gap the painting left.

The common room was empty apart from one person; James. He was lounging on the sofa, but jumped up when he saw his friends enter the room.

'And so the sneaks arrive back' James crossed his arms over his chest. 'You could have awoken me, you know!'

Sirius handed the cloak and map to James. 'It was too early. You know damn well that if we woke you up you'd accuse us for being the reason you're tired for the rest of the day.'

James nodded slowly, defeated.

'Now go stash those' Sirius gestured to the items he'd handed James 'in your trunk.'

James disappeared up stairs and re-appeared minutes later. He had his books under one arm and was roughing his hair up with the other.

'Prongs, you know you look like a spoon when you do that.' Sirius gave a small smile a cocked his head to one side.

'Lily doesn't seem to mind it.' James ignored Sirius' chosen insult.

'That's because-' Sirius began.

'Lily' Remus broke in before Sirius could continue with the mocking 'Doesn't just judge people on hair and looks, unlike some people.' Remus glared at Sirius, who scoffed at him.

'What would you know?' he scorned.

'Ravenclaw girls aren't just there to be stared at…' Remus said, sarcastically tutting. Sirius whacked his arm lightly.

'Well, the giggle too much to actually make conversation.' Sirius said in his own defence. He would not let the conversation continue into an accusation that he had no guts to talk to girls. Sirius could easily do so, it's just he didn't find much of an attraction too many girls at Hogwarts. 'Anyway, why have you got your books? We have Dark Arts then a free lesson.' Sirius asked, changing subject.

'_You_ have a free lesson!' James mumbled half-heartedly. 'However, Lily and I have Astronomy.'

'Ooh, stargazing with Evans? How romantic.' Sirius rolled his eyes and pretended to vomit over Remus, who was laughing at the cheesiness of the situation. James ignored their mocking and quickly glanced towards the stairs that led to the girls' dorm. A few first years with scruffy uniform were walking down them. The common room itself was slowly filling up, meaning one thing. It was an acceptable time for breakfast. James sighed at the disappointing sight of Lily's absence from the room and, looking once again longingly at the stairs to the girls' dorm where Lily would be, he let the other Marauders lead him down to breakfast.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Remus, Sirius and James arrived for their first lesson of Defence Against the Dark Arts before anyone else. In any normal lesson, Sirius would complain about Remus trying to convert him into a 'nerd side-kick'; but Sirius was more eager to perform in Dark Arts than Remus was.

As the corridor outside the Dark Arts room slowly filled with students, a man opened the door for them to enter. James and Sirius sat at the front at a table with Remus on the one next to them. Lily entered the room and took the usual spare seat next to Remus. Scattered around the room was an average amount of students as Dark Arts was a popular yet demanding subject, which evened out the numbers. There were a group of Slytherins that sat a few seats behind the rest of the class including Severus Snape who, noticeably, sat on the opposite side of the room to Lily. Along with Severus, the Slytherins consisted of Mulciber, Avery and a few faces that weren't important enough to be a re-occurring name to the Marauders. Two Ravenclaw girls sat in the centre of the class too.

'Hello NEWT students' the Professor spoke suddenly, making half of the class jump three feet into the air. 'I am Professor Spike.' His voice was steady and almost haunting; sending a sense of tension around the room. He was a tall, dark haired man with pale skin. He was taller than your average wizard, which seemed to add even more fright into his already eerie appearance.

'As you may know, your last teacher retired early last year after being traumatised by certain students.' Professor Spike glared around the room. Out of the corner of Remus' eye, he saw Sirius smirking. He had driven their last professor, Hawkins, mad by producing hexes that he had never seen before. His 'early retirement' was all of Sirius' doing with some small help from James and Remus.

Professor Spike continued his introduction. 'I can promise you I will not have a problem with willing Dark Arts students. If you want to learn something, I will teach you. There will be no need of textbooks this year. Everything you will need to know for your exams will be learnt through practical lessons.'

Remus turned to Lily. 'You staying here or do you want to swap with Sirius?' He said, almost revealing a light humour in his voice.

Lily raised her eyebrows, un-amused. 'Remus Lupin, you are my best friend. Just because James and I-'

'Want to get it on.' Remus cut in, smirking. Lily jabbed him with her elbow.

'Just because James and I are _becoming more than friends_' Lily said, putting emphasis on her re-wording of the sentence 'doesn't mean I don't want to continue lessons beating him by going with you.'

'If you want to prove to James you can kick his ass at Dark Arts, go with Sirius. He's top of the class.' Remus smiled at the amusing thought of Sirius being top at something for once.

'He's also an incompetent asshole who wouldn't work as well with me as you do. Besides, you're just as good as he is!' Lily protested.

Remus shook his head. 'I'm not; we all know who could really kick all our butts at Dark Arts in here.' He looked away from Lily and let his eyes land upon Sirius. 'Credit where credit is due' He whispered. It was as if he didn't want Sirius to hear; not only because it would make his head bigger, however. There was something else. Remus wasn't sure whether it was the fact Sirius had beaten or whether it was that he envied the ease in which Sirius performed Dark Arts as opposed to his own amount of practice and studying; either way there was_ something_ _else._

As Professor Spike began to give instructions to the class, Remus let any previous thoughts slip from his mind. The class would be studying Unforgivable Curses. James and Sirius shared a look before turning to share it further with Remus. The three of them knew all about Unforgivable Curses. Sirius' family used them all the time, so he had shared with James, Remus and their ex-friend Peter his knowledge. The curses could torture, control and kill a person. It was this knowledge that caused Peter to be expelled after he attempted to torture Sirius.

To start with, the class would try the Imperius Curse; used to control a person.

'The idea' Spike told the class 'is to get the person to do what you want. Like so…'

Spike put a spider onto the desk. He lifted his wand.

'Imperio' his voice was calm yet powerful. The spider instantly obeyed and fell limp. Spike spun him around the room, making him do neat tricks whilst his students watched in awe, for most of the lesson. At the end of the hour and a half, Spike set homework to read the first chapter of '_Dark Arts for NEWT students_' about Unforgivable Curses. Remus had already heard this as Sirius had read it aloud to James and he on their first night back in their dorm. That left the three of them with less homework than expected.

'An hour and a half of Astronomy now' Lily smiled at James who winked at her, grabbed her hand and made for the Astronomy tower.

'See you later guys.' James called over his shoulder.

Sirius shook his head at his friend's new relationship finally planning itself out in front of their eyes.

'What have you got now then, Moons?' Sirius asked, expecting to have to go off alone whilst Remus went to his next lesson.

'Free period' Remus said, causing Sirius to smile. 'We have three together each week if I am correct. Then you have three with just us and James and then three with James and Lily; good luck with that one.' Remus knew exactly how little fun it would be for Sirius watching Lily and James flirt and make-out whilst he sat on his own.

Sirius sighed. 'I swear I'll go around terrorising Slytherin first years if they ditch me for some 'alone time'.' He muttered. Remus patted his back sympathetically. He didn't even bother to protest Sirius' choice; even though it was his job as a prefect. He too would be tempted.

'You have any homework?' Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head. 'Already read the chapter, remember? And I finished Arithmancy last night.'

'Same here about that chapter. It's not like it didn't tell me what I know already, however.' Sirius made no attempt to hide his smug smile which caused Remus to throw him an envious look which translated as 'stop being a twat'. Sirius understood and his smile grew as he placed an arm round his friend's back to steer him down the corridor.

'So are we up for preparing the shack tonight?' Remus asked. 'It might be best to do it now whilst our homework amount is limited.

'Whilst _your_ homework amount is limited, you mean.' Sirius corrected. You know damn well that I only do homework when I have to; and most the time you let me copy anyway.

Remus sighed; it was true. To keep James and Sirius' detentions to a minimum, he removed the point of there being an absence of their homework and let both of them copy his own. This wasn't to say that they didn't get in a lot of trouble for other things however.

'But yes; anything for my nerdy, little werewolf' Sirius mocked, squishing Remus' cheeks with his fingers like a mother would do to a child.

'I'll take that as a compliment.' Remus muttered, but he didn't shrug Sirius off. He only dwelled in his friend's joke. 'Now, can I convince you to come with me to the study hall or am I going alone?'

Sirius snorted. 'So you can read whilst I'm bored mindless? No thanks. Also, you are not ditching me. Come along, Moony, I am going to thrash your buttocks at wizard chess.'

'In your dreams, Padfoot' Remus grinned at Sirius who mirrored his expression perfectly; each of them overjoyed at the other calling them by the nicknames they used so often. In fact, whilst talking to each other they only ever used nicknames.

'We'll see' Remus said, still grinning.

With that, they headed off to the Gryffindor common room.

'How was Astronomy?' Remus asked James and Lily as they sat down next to each other at the Gryffindor table for lunch. He and Sirius were sitting the opposite side after arriving a few minutes previous from the common room, where they'd spent the whole of their free period playing wizard chess.

'Dull' James said automatically. 'We did textbook work for the entire lesson.'

'No romantic stargazing then?' Sirius batted his eyelashes at James who gave him a dark look in return which told him to drop it. Lily, however, giggled and helped herself to some food.

'Anyway, Prongs, you're busy tonight.' Sirius said in a casually tone, lowering his voice so only James and Remus could hear. 'We-' He gestured to the three of them, '-are off to prepare the shack for Moony's monthly date.' Sirius clapped Remus on the back.

'Oh shit' James looked uneasy.

'What?' Remus and Sirius said in unison.

James ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. 'I was going to take Lily down to the lake using the cloak.' James looked to Lily who was absent mindedly nibbling on her food.

Remus looked disappointed. The three of them spent one of the day's in the week previous to his transformation setting up the shack and had done since the beginning. It wasn't something James would forget; but Remus decided not to mention this as he didn't want to cause a problem out of something he could have easily been left alone to do from the beginning. James had a right to not have to do it. Remus shouldn't get in the way of that.

Sirius, however, was pissed. 'Are you joking? Just tell her you have to cancel because you _forgot something important!_' he hissed the last few words causing James to shift uneasily.

'I'm sorry; I'll tell her.'

'No' Remus said.

Sirius and James' heads turned to him. 'No?' they both said.

'Don't cancel with Lily.' Remus shrugged.

'Why not?' James said. 'I can't blow you guys out.'

'Gay' Sirius muttered before he could stop himself causing a small smile to appear on his friends faces. He had a tendency to speak before he thought through what he was going to say.

'Well, if you don't tell her why she'll think you're not interested in her anymore; which is bullshit.' Remus caused James to smile. 'Also, if you did tell her why she'd want to come along and it's too dangerous for a non-animagi.'

'Ah yes, I forget how much you protested when James and I used to follow you down to the shack previous to our 'animagi experience.'

'_Permanent _animagi experience' Remus reminded him.

Sirius shrugged. 'I don't mind.'

'So James, you'll go on your date with Lily with the cloak. Sirius and I will still prepare the Shrieking Shack for my transformation which is in a few days. We won't have the cloak but if we take the map then we should know if anyone can see us anyway.' Remus finished looking between his two friends who were grinning you know.

'I knew there was a reason why you're the smart one.' Sirius ruffled Remus' hair and gave him a quick, one-armed hug. 'So what time are you going later?' He said, turning to James.

'8pm' James confirmed.

'Good, we'll leave just after.' Remus confirmed.

'Ooh, I'll be in the common room waiting for our date.' Sirius joked, winking at Remus.

'See you there, dear.' Remus joked back.

'Ugh, promise me that if I ever end up anything like that, you'll knock the shit out of me.' James grimaced.

'Done deal' Sirius said through an evil smile.

'You shouldn't have done that.' Remus said in a sing-song voice. 'You'll regret it.'

'Probably, we've got to give the doggy a satisfying bone every now and again though, haven't we?' James laughed, ducking as Sirius flicked food from his fork at his head.


End file.
